20th April, 2017
British Olympic high jump silver medalist Germaine Mason has died aged 34 after a motorcycle crash in Jamaica.
The Jamaica-born athlete, who switched to represent Great Britain in 2006, won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
He was a friend of sprinter Usain Bolt, who was on the scene soon after the crash at 04:20 local time on Thursday.
“Usain Bolt was part of the group that came by and he was very, very emotional, and still is,” said Senior Superintendent Calvin Allen.
Senior Supt Allen, commanding officer of the Jamaican police traffic and highway division, told the BBC: “I understand they are very close friends.”
He was unable to say whether Mason had been in Bolt’s company that evening, or if the eight-time Olympic champion was in a following vehicle.
Mason won Britain’s first athletics medal of the Beijing Games, finishing second behind Russian Andrey Silnov.
British Olympic champions Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Denise Lewis and Linford Christie have all paid tribute, with Christie saying he would never be forgotten, BBC reports.